How Much Does Social Security Disability Pay in Baltimore, D.C. & Virginia?

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What to Expect When You’re Approved for Disability Payments

If you have health issues that prevent you from working, disability benefits are meant to help you support yourself and pay your bills.

It’s no surprise that one of the questions we hear most often at Mathis & Mathis Disability Advocates is, “How much does Social Security Disability pay?”

The answer isn’t simple. People who successfully apply for disability benefits receive different monthly amounts, based on rules Social Security sets for how these benefits are calculated.

Whether you’re applying for Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) or Supplemental Security Income (SSI) benefits, our advocates can tell you more about what to expect each month if your application for benefits is approved.

Mathis & Mathis will also do everything we can to increase your chances of winning benefits in the first place.

We know this is a stressful situation. You can’t work and you’re worried about how you’re going to support yourself and your family.

We’re devoted to helping you in this time of need. Our family firm has been helping people win benefits for more than 30 years.

Whether this is your first time applying for benefits or you have been denied for SSI or SSDI, our disability advocates for people in Northern Virginia, Washington, D.C. and Baltimore will give your case the personal attention it deserves.

Social Security Disability Is All We Do.

How SSDI Payments Are Calculated

Monthly SSDI payments are calculated with your past earnings in mind, but that’s just one part of Social Security’s formula determining your disability checks.

There are three steps to this process once you qualify for SSDI payments:

Step 1: Calculating your AIME

The first step is calculating your Average Indexed Monthly Earnings (AIME). The SSA looks at up to 35 years of your earnings and makes a monthly average.

Step 2: Plugging your AIME into the PIA formula

Then Social Security puts your AIME into a formula known as Primary Insurance Amount, or PIA.

This PIA gives you a certain amount of benefits based on your past income, but there are “bend points” that affect how much you receive. As your income goes up, a smaller portion of it is counted.

These were the bend points as of 2026:

90% of the first $1,286 of your AIME plus

32% of your AIME of $1,286 through $7,749 plus

15% of your AIME over $7,749

The highest possible SSDI payment reached $4,152 per month in 2026, but most people do not receive that maximum benefit. The average was about $1,630 per month.

Step 3: Accounting for other benefits

Certain types of benefits could also affect your calculation for monthly SSDI payment. Veterans’ disability benefits won’t lower your monthly payments, but workers’ compensation could.

It gets confusing. Work with disability advocates at Mathis & Mathis who make sure that you’re getting all of the benefits you’re entitled to.

You’ve worked hard and paid into this system for years. If your health has stopped you from working, SSDI benefits are a vital financial lifeline.

Get started with a FREE SSDI case consultation.

How Much You’ll Receive in SSI

The formula for calculating monthly SSI payments isn’t quite as complicated. Because you don’t need to have a work history to qualify for SSI, your past wages don’t matter.

Instead, you start with the maximum federal payment ($994 for an individual in 2026), and then your benefits can be reduced based on other resources you have or assistance you receive.

Some things that could affect your monthly SSI payments include:

Income from your job (you can work a small amount while receiving SSI)

Other forms of income, like investment income, other types of disability benefits or unemployment

Income from your spouse

One-time sources of money, like a legal settlement or inheritance

State aid, like food stamps or housing support

Everyone’s situation is different, so your monthly SSI payments could differ from a friend, family member, or neighbor who also qualifies for disability.

What remains the same for rules about every SSI applicant is the resource limit. Individuals must have countable resources under $2,000, and couples must have resources valued at less than $3,000 to qualify for SSI benefits.

You can also get a supplement to your SSI payments in some states and Washington, D.C. These supplements are paid by Social Security or directly by your state.

Contact our disability advocates for help.

What Happens When the Cost-of-Living Increases?

You receive SSDI or SSI payments at a certain amount, but what happens when necessities like groceries get more expensive over time? Do you have to struggle and try to stretch your monthly benefits farther?

This is a common concern, and it’s why Social Security typically adjusts how much you receive in monthly benefits each year.

Your payments for both SSDI and SSI can rise with an annual Cost-of-Living Adjustment, or COLA.

In 2026, the COLA was 2.8 percent. Other recent COLA adjustments included a 2.5 percent adjustment in 2025 and a 3.2 percent adjustment in 2024.

The payment amounts are different for SSDI and SSI, but they increase by the same percentage with a COLA.

After the COLA for 2026, these were the payment numbers:

SSDI: $1,630 per month on average for recipients, a $44 increase from 2025

SSI: $1,491 per month for an eligible couple receiving SSI, a $41 increase from 2025

SSI: $994 per month for an individual, a $27 increase from 2025.

Of course, how much Social Security Disability pays won’t really matter to you if you can’t successfully apply for benefits.

If you think you may qualify for Social Security Disability, or you’ve already been denied SSDI or SSI benefits, we want to hear from you. There is no fee until you win benefits.

Mathis & Mathis Disability Advocates is a family firm that’s helped thousands of people in Washington, D.C., Baltimore, Northern Virginia, and all over Maryland, Virginia, and the rest of the region get the benefits that they deserve.

Don’t try to go through this process on your own.

Contact us now.

Applying or Appealing, We Can Help

Whether you’re in the initial stages of applying, appealing a denial of benefits, or wondering if you qualify, Mathis & Mathis can help.

Hear from a Mathis & Mathis Client

“I could not recommend Mathis & Mathis highly enough. They were kind, patient and thorough. No question was too small. They were timely in responding to me. While the process of applying for and obtaining disability is a long, tough road, Mr. Mathis made everything so much better. If you are thinking about applying, please do and know you will be taken very good care of . . . just like family.”

— Tracey Jones, Google Reviews